The Indianapolis Colts were in the discussions to trade for Matthew Stafford.
This was 2021, and the Detroit Lions had yet to send Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams.
The Colts were still seeking a replacement, a real long-term answer, after the shocking retirement of Andrew Luck.
Colts GM Chris Ballard didn’t pull the trigger.
Five years later, Stafford remains one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, including a Super Bowl championship with the Rams.
And Ballard was fired on Monday. He never found his Luck replacement.
Matthew Stafford Colts Trade Rumor
The news came out about a year after the fact.
NFL insider Peter Schrager joined the Pat McAfee Show in 2022 to share that the Colts had a chance to get Stafford.
At the time, Schrager noted that the Colts simply didn’t want to pay the cost for Stafford:
“Matthew Stafford was willing to be a Colt last year & they didn’t go over the top to get him” ~@PSchrags
#PMSLive https://t.co/nrcY7AJ3tz
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 10, 2022
The Colts have gone through a bunch of veteran QB options since Luck retired, but none of them panned out — and none had the potential to be as good as Stafford would’ve been.
The Colts eventually tried to solve things by picking Anthony Richardson with the No. 4 overall pick out of Florida in 2023, but that didn’t work. Then they found Daniel Jones to lead them to an 8-2 start last season, which led to a huge contract extension this offseason — but Jones now appears to have regressed back to the mean, and the Colts are in quarterback trouble again.
And sure, it’s not like Stafford came cheap. But it sure hasn’t aged well that the Colts turned down the chance.
Matthew Stafford Trade Cost
When the Lions traded Stafford to the Rams in January 2021, they got four assets in return.
The Rams sent them quarterback Jared Goff, a 2021 third-round pick, a 2022 first-round pick and a 2023 first-round pick.
L.A. has made a name for itself by not being afraid to trade away first-round picks, and in this case, it got them the Lombardi Trophy.
It’s hard to compare the package completely with the Colts, though, because they wouldn’t have had a similar young quarterback to Goff to potentially trade. So would it have cost even more draft picks? Or potentially a different young player?
There isn’t more out there about what the Rams wanted from the Colts, so five years later, all we can do is speculate.
But it is safe to think that Ballard’s job would’ve taken a more immediate turn, one way or the other, if he had decided to make a Stafford trade in 2021.
Colts Passed on Matthew Stafford Trade, and Chris Ballard Never Found Andrew Luck Replacement